Great Composer Quiz - Previous Answers (Highlight to reveal
the Composer or Masterwork)
February 17th: This time it’s a Quiz about how to recover from a loss of funding. When civil war broke out in his native country, this Great Composer lost his scholarship which came from back home and he and his wife moved to the Black Forest, where they were received as refugees. They remained there for two years, and during this time our Great Composer made a study of bird-songs in the forest. At the end of that time he simply could not be away from home any longer, and though war was still raging he moved back to his native land, into the relatively safe confines of the university. So who was this bird-loving academic come home to roost, this Great Composer?
Joaquin Rodrigo, who lost his schlaroship when the Spanish Civil War broke out, so he and his wife Victoria went to live in the Black Forest, in Germany for two years, where he studied bird-songs. Rodrigo was blind. He would sit among the trees for hours, listening.
February 16th: The Great President's Quiz--- On this Presidents Day, it's a Great Presidents Quiz. This Great President regarded music as "a delightful recreation through life." He called it “this favorite passion of my soul." While in college he practiced the violin up to three hours a day, which was good enough to be invited to the Governor’s parties to play. His favorite composer was Corelli, though he also had great respect for Haydn, and he said he envied the French their music. So who was this music lover, this Great President?
Thomas Jefferson, third president of these United States. He practiced violin at William and Mary so much he got to play gigs at “The Palace” during parties thrown by the Royal Governor of Virginia. Jefferson's granddaughter used to sleep directly over Jefferson on the third floor at Monticello and she said she often heard him “humming old tunes, generally Scottish songs but sometimes Italian airs or hymns." Jefferson is reported to have been “always singing when riding or walking, and the man who oversaw Jefferson’s plantation, Edmund Bacon, said “He was nearly always humming some tune, or singing in a low tone to himself.”
February 3rd: This time it's a Quiz about family ties.
This Great Composer's aunt, Sarah Levy, was a talented
keyboard player, and had been a student of the oldest
son of Bach - Wilhelm Friedman - as well as a patron
of Bach's second son - Carl Philipp Emanuel. What's
more, Sarah Levy owned an impressive collection of
manuscripts of the Bach family that she allowed our
young Great Composer to study. All the instruments we
have agree, her Bach connection had a deep and lasting
impact on her nephew. So who as this man twice removed
from Sebastian Bach, this Great Composer?
Felix Mendelssohn, born 200 years ago today, in Hamburg.
With such an aunt it's easy to see how he could have
grown up deeply influenced by Bach - how he came to be
the great champion of Bach in his lifetime, reviving the
St. Matthew Passion, which set in motion the Bach
revival of the 19th century. Mendelssohn also went to
live in Leipizg and was director of the choir at St.
Thomas Church, which is where Bach worked a century
earlier.
February 2nd: This time it's a Quiz about playing the
fool's game of chasing the easy buck. This Great
Composer always had financial worries. He was never
free of them, and so in his mid-30s he decided to pursue,
what he called "the glittering illusion of fortune" which
the theater offered, and began work on an opera. He
worked on it over several years and was never completely
satisfied with it. "This business of the opera," he said,
"is the most tedious in the world." And though it did see
the light of day it did not bring him the fortune he sought.
So who was this man unsuited for the stage, this Great
Composer?
Ludwig van Beethoven, whose only opera was Fidelio, or as
he preferred to call it Leonore. It was not especially
successful, but this did not stop Beethoven from offering
himself to a theater's board of directors as "composer to
the theater." This however, did not come about.
January 30th: This time it's a Quiz about lending a
helping hand. This Great Composer gave away a large
percentage of his concert proceeds to charity and
humanitarian causes. He worked to help build a National
School of Music in his homeland, and he gave to
a building fund for the Cologne Cathedral. He helped
establish a school in another town and the construction
of a church in another. He gave privately to hospitals
and musicians pension funds. After the Great Fire of
Hamburg which raged for three weeks and destroyed much
of the city he gave concerts in aid of the thousands
who were homeless there. He even worked to raise money
for monuments to his favorite composer. So who was
this philanthropic man, this Great Composer?
Franz Liszt, who helped build the Hungarian National
School of Music and the Leopold Church in Pest. He
also gave to build a school at Dortmund, to help the
Leipzig Musicians Pension Fund, and he helped raise
money for those made homeless by the Great Hamburg
Fire. He also worked to raise funds for monuments
to Beethoven in Bonn and Vienna.
January 29th: This time it;s a Quiz about letting
your feelings show. This Great Composer's sister
described our Great Composer in her journal like this:
"With him everything is open and spontaneous, he always
gives himself away - never the slightest effort to
conceal the vagaries of his mood." Acquaintances agreed,
our Great Composer's mood was often mockery, and when
he encountered incompetence his mood would change to
humiliating scorn. He enjoyed smoking "a good cigar,"
locked in discourse late in the evening. So who was
this mimicking, scornful, and transparent man, this
Great Composer?
The brother of Nanci Berlioz, Hector.
